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Summer is a great time to read and if you love to devour books like I do, you're always on the lookout for a new list of great reads. My goal this year is to read 100 books and I'm well on my way with 64 completed. I usually have a hardcover I read at lunch, an audiobook I listen to as I work, and a different ebook or hardcover for the evening reading hours - so I usually have 3 going at once! I should easily reach my goal of 100 in the remaining four months of the year 2016. Not all the books I've read have been great so I filtered out my favorites that I would rate a 5 star.

Everywhere in the nation it has been steamy hot and humid this summer, Florida is no exception. We are planning a trip to the Canadian border later this month and have been watching the weather and its in the 80's there too. But the hot steamy weather doesn't mean you can't get out an enjoy a nice walk or activity outside.

Here are some tips to stay cool in the hot, humid weather -

Timing is Everything - If you can, choose your time outside when its cooler, like early morning or early evening. If there is rain, wait til afterward and get outside when its cooled down from the rain.

Drink Water - drink more water than you usually do, guzzle a glass just before you get outside.

Acclimate yourself to heat - being tolerant to the heat doesn't happen in one day, it takes weeks of getting outside in the warm weather and getting active. You will notice that as the days go by it doesn't bother you as much.

Stay in the shade - if you have to take a break, get out of the sun and into the shade or AC.

Don't overexert yourself if you're not in shape - only tackle what you can handle. Be more careful to not over do it if you are in a remote location and help is not immediately available. Wear your Fitbit Charge to monitor your heart rate to be sure you don't get in peak zone too long.

Dress right - forget about fashion, be practical and wear light colored and loose fitting clothing that will allow your body to breath and, yes sweat. Sweat is natures way of cooling your body. We love the brand #Columbia and especially the Omni freeze zero shirts that provide cooling effects when damp. When we go canoeing, we just put the shirts in a gallon size Ziploc bag, pour a bottle of cold water on the shirt and squish it around til its all saturated and then put on the wet shirt. Its chilling like being in air conditioning for hours!

It's back again this year, when the Tampa bay #Rays get 10 strikeouts against the other team, Kanes and Wawa will give you a free sub! You don't even have to attend the game, just print this voucher from your printer and bring it to Kanes within 7 days of the game with ten strikeouts. They will exchange your voucher for a coupon to Wawa to get a free short hoagie.

Tampa Bay Rays PromotionBatter Up! If the Tampa Bay Rays get 10 strikeouts, you'll get a FREE Shorti Hoagie of your choice from a participating Wawa.

Within 7 days of the 10 strikeout home game, bring in one of these qualifying items to any Kane's Showroom and get a coupon for a Shorti Hoagie from Wawa:- Ticket Stub- Seat Locator Receipt (for Flex Pack Cardholders)- Web Voucher (printed or on phone)

PLEASE NOTE: Limit one FREE hoagie coupon per person per ticket stub/receipt/web voucher, per game. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years of age & you must redeem your ticket stub/receipt at Kane's within 7 days of the 10 strikeout home game date.To find out if the Rays got 10 strikeouts you can check your newspaper and look under the other team they played and if the number of strikeouts is 10 or greater you can get the promotion. If you're not sure, you could just go to http://www.kanesstrikeout.com/ to see if the voucher shows a game date within the past 7 days.The Rays got 10 strikeouts on 6/14/16 and the voucher must be redeemed by Tuesday 06/21/16 at Kanes.

Another Tampa Bay Rays PromotionPapa John's Pizza - get 50% with code RAYS6 the day after they get 6 runs in a game, which they did on the 14th. So today the 15th you can get a Large Pizza for $7.49

1. Download the Moe’s Rockin’ Rewards app on iTunes or Google Play.
2. Create an account with your email address or Facebook account. (Using Facebook will earn you an extra 50 points.)
3. Click on “Offers” in the bottom right-hand corner of the app, and you’ll see your coupon for a FREE burrito, which you can redeem at the Moe’s nearest you.
4. You can also enter another user’s referral code (mine is MARIE39) to get an additional 500 points — which I’d say is worth it, because 1,000 points will get you $10 in store credit.
To rack up the other 500 points, you can either spend $50 (you earn 10 points for every dollar spent), or refer friends. For everyone who signs up through your link, and then uses the app in-store, you get 100 points. So get five friends to join, and you’ll have $10 in Moe’s credit!The promo runs from now until August 14, 2016.
Once you sign up, you must redeem the offer in-store within seven days… But I doubt you’ll wait that long when a free burrito is calling your name!

Yesterday it happened. The unexpected opportunity which, as it turns out needed to be acted on rather soon if we wanted to take advantage of it. Sometimes there are those Not Urgent, But Important activities that are always lurking in the backs of our minds. Taxes could be one of those things, until it actually becomes Tax Day and hopefully you have them done way before this day.

Anyway, getting firewood varies on the scale of importance and urgency. After a nice winter with lots of fires, our firewood piles are low. We have three stockpiles of wood and it ages nicely for a year and then we have three racks of split firewood. We like to have all three of both types full of course. But right now we have two empty split wood racks, and one empty cut wood pile, with the others getting low. So, we are always scouting for free firewood and when it becomes available we have to act pretty quickly - it becomes one of those urgent activities.

As Stephen Covey explains in this classic text things we do; all can be categorized as Urgent and/or Important or a combination of those. Getting firewood while its available became urgent because it usually goes away as the homeowner cleans up the mess of cutting down a tree. So a friend told me about an Oak tree cut down and a sign out front confirming free firewood. That meant piling into the truck to check it out.

We loaded the chain saw, two wheeled hand truck and drove to the location. At first it didn't look like much we could use because the trunk of the tree was humongous. We asked the little old man who lived there what was available and he said all of it. We scored on the medium size branches (6-12" diameter) that were already loaded into his trailer to go to the dump. So we had to pull out the logs and cut them up with the chainsaw into manageable size wood. After many trips with the hand truck we had the Ford Explorer full and heavy. The dude really wanted to get rid of the wood because he offered to fill his pickup truck and follow us home to bring us even more wood. We politely declined the offer, thanked him for the wood and departed.

But at this point we were only half done. We were exhausted, sweaty and dirty with a few nicks and cuts from moving chunks of wood. Now we had to off load the truck and stack the wood in our stockpile space. Then the truck needed to be cleaned and the chain saw cleaned up too. What a job. Not many people would do what we did to get free wood. In fact I don't know anyone who would. I guess we're lucky we're both frugal. I'll leave you with this thought. And hopefully your taxes are done.

Finally the city of Tampa has posted the schedule of #FREE Friday Extra Series concerts. The first half are at waterworks park, and the remainder are at Lowry Park. Most of the bands have a website listed so you can check it out.

These days the stock market is really tankin' and its kind of depressing, the only consolation I have is that its happening to the whole world. So what to do? I could be like this giraffe at Busch Gardens and just munch away on some grass like I don't have a care in the world. That actually is probably sound advice, don't panic. But actually if you have a little bit of cash that needs investing, this is the time. But stick to the solid dividend stocks that don't really change a whole lot, except to mostly just increase in value and keep paying out dividends. I've had a couple energy stocks this past quarter that totally dived with the gas prices and not surprisingly; they ceased paying dividends. Now they aren't worth much, plus they quit paying the dividend that made it worth it in the first place. Needless to say, I don't check www.mint.com everyday these days.

Well 2015 was an expensive year, compared to the previous year 2014 where we lived on $34K, and the prior year 2013 where we lived on $32K. I was kind of hoping this year would be the same as the last two years but alas it is time to buckle down and get back to budgeting. My motto is that you can't improve what you don't measure, so even though you don't like the numbers you see they are what they are.

$8548 The largest expense (20% of spending) we had this year was travel - we went on a couple cruises this year, 5 day and 7 day, a trip to Phoenix, AZ, a trip to Minnesota and our annual timeshare week at Naples, FL. This is probably about normal and we expect to continue to have about five vacations each year, so a budget cut will have to come from another area.

$6000 The next largest (14%) portion is our allowance. We each get $250/month to spend or save as we like on stuff that is not included in the house. Lunches with coworkers, outings without each other, clothing that is not necessary, electronics, toys, experiences that we don't do together. The house buys if we go out together for dinner, or do a trip or activity together. Sometimes we splurge and each chip in our allowance because the "house" can't afford it right then. This expense is the same every year and we each have sizable individual savings that we occasionally withdraw from to purchase from when we can't justify it coming from the house.

$3256 The third most expensive (7%) portion is clothing, electronics and misc. This is the culprit for the unknown spending. I did buy a GoPro this year, and some cool Columbia clothing for our BWCA camping trip, but this category needs serious tracking to keep it smaller than it is. This is not a frugal person category.

$2546 Our cars, motorcycles and home (not counting insurance) maintenance costs were a little high﻿ (6%) considering all we fixed on the cars was an alternator this year. I think this is the patio paver project we did in the spring was the bulk of this spending. We also got a new metal roof installed on our home but didn't include that expense ($20K) in our living expenses since it was paid off from savings. Next year we're installing a polyvinyl fence around our yard and expect to pay up to $10K for that. Then our forever home will be solid, well, forever.

$2207 Home Insurance - we have lived in our home in FL for twenty one years and have always had State Farm insurance. Amazingly, they have never canceled us, but then again we live in a inexpensive home 25 feet above sea level, and we've never filed a claim. So they are glad to take a couple thousand from us. We could probably get cheaper insurance but I don't want to deal with inspections and if we do ever file a claim, the fighting and denials that come with less than reputable insurance company.

$2117 Food, Household supplies and beverages (not including the keg) - we still coupon, but have started to withdraw $100-200 cash a month for groceries and stuff you get at Publix. We still have large stockpiles and years worth of paper products and shampoo, plus 3 refrigerators and freezers full. Our goal is to move through enough so we don't need to chest freezer. This does not include our monthly keg of beer we purchase with our allowance ($1260).

$1859 Life Insurance - we both have whole life policies that have a sizable cash payout if we don't want to wait til we die to collect. We don't really need the insurance but its a cheap safe investment.

$1564 Health Insurance, rx, copay, dentist - we are fortunate to only $15/mo each for health insurance through our employer, so the bulk of this was dental, a new crown I got in December.

$1553 Electricity - this actually is more than 2014, but we have noticed a decrease in monthly costs since our new metal roof was installed. We also installed a new programmable thermostat this year and actually program it to ease off AC during workdays.

$1550 Cell phones - We have two Galaxy S phones, one unlimited SERO plan on Sprint that I use, and DH uses Ringplus.net on his phone since he doesn't really need or use data. This includes purchase of a new Galaxy S6 phone I got 6 months ago, and the repair cost of $146 from Samsung to fix a cracked glass. I now have an Otterbox case so that won't happen again.

$1442 Car Insurance - we have a risky state to drive in, so we are fully covered and have high uninsured motorist coverage despite having a 11 year old Camry and 18 year old Explorer. We could cut this back but DH doesn't want to.

$1413 Dining Out - this doesn't include our weekly dinner out for wings and beer because that is out of allowance. So, I'm pretty sure this category can be cut back.

$1321 Internet/Cable TV - We could cut expense here and probably will. I have super duper fast internet uploads and downloads and could downsize on that. We don't have a DVR or any extra packages, just HD cable but DH watches live sports every night so there is no way we can get rid of cable. I never watch TV, but I do use the internet so we each have our needs met.

$1241 Gasoline - for all vehicles. We drove 14000 miles between 2 cars and 2 motorcycles, plus the 1300 miles I rode my bike to work (130 days of the year).

$1121 Property tax - our home is not really appreciating despite the market conditions, and the property tax is capped due to a "save our homes" law in FL many years ago.

$1069 Motorcycle Insurance - I know, we spend a lot on insurance. But DH collided with a car 5 years ago and lived to tell about it, we collected our maximum uninsured motorist amount due to injuries received, so now we keep this insurance high.

$743 Water, Garbage, Recycle pickup - twice a week pickup, not much we can do to decrease this except watch our water usage. We are already frugal in this area so I'm okay with this one.

$664 Personal care - haircuts. I am growing my hair out so I've only been to my stylist a few times this year, but DH gets a haircut every 3 weeks. I think this should come out of allowance, but alas I do not always get my way. I've tried negotiating this every year, but its not worth drama and resentment.

$328 Pet - our old lab mix dog is over 15 years old this year. She has vertigo, is totally deaf, has cataracts, and has a huge fatty lump on her body and now her bad hips are very weak and she struggles to stand for more than a minute, but she walks fine. Despite this, she didn't have any medical needs this year other than routine meds. She probably won't make it through the year 2016.

In summary, our expenses are about $12,000 more than last year. Most of our set costs have remained similar, but the misc category and travel can be monitored more closely. We can continue to travel, but we'll be more deal seekers. And we don't need more clothes this year. I would like to have a no clothing spend challenge with DH this year.

I've taken to listening to audiobooks lately, and found a gem on Hoopla. Have you heard of the KonMari method of tidying? This book by Marie Kondo The Magic of Tidying is about decluttering and keeping only items that inspire and spark joy in you. Its a quick read or a quick listen, about four hours and you too will be motivated to declutter. The most important thing to figure out before you declutter is to determine your "Why?" by stating your reason you want to declutter and then asking Why. Do this three times to find the root cause of why you want to declutter. You will find it has nothing to do with getting rid of junk, but is probably a reason related to relationships or people or freedom or something.

For me, I stated to my DH that I wanted to declutter the pool table rec room so we could play billiards again. It is currently surrounded by excess stockpile bottles of shampoo and bounce and boxes of napkins and toilet paper. On top are piles of items we dug through boxes to find but then did nothing with. The room is a mess. Anyway, my second level Why question is Why do I want to play pool? Well, its a hobby both my DH and I enjoy and we never do it anymore. Why? Well we used to play pool with friends on Friday nights and party, but now we hang around the backyard by the firepit and listen to music or watch some sporting event on TV. We have replaced billiards with hanging outside. Which is fine, but there are lots of times during the year when it is not very fun to hang around outside - like in July in Florida where we have gotten twenty inches of rain! Or in January when its near forty degrees which is cold even with the nice warm fire blazing.

Anyway, I've announced I'm going to declutter and follow the method in the book which states to start with the most non personal items which are clothes. Several years ago when we remodeled our bedrooms. living room, and family rooms we purged bags and bags of clothes, books, mimentos and papers. However, a good majority of them just ended up in boxes in the rec room and our spare guest room. Our guest room has become our stockpile room and it is too a mess. We probably have over a thousand rolls of TP and a 50 rolls of paper towels, over 100 toothbrushes, 100 shampoos, dozens of bottles of cleaning products and every other personal care item you could need or want. We undoubtedly will have to have a garage sale coming up in the fall to get rid of all the excess I plan to discard. And it will be a good one. Once its outside the house for a yard sale, it will not be coming back in - to the curb it will go.

my sock drawer before decluttering

So, the process of tidying will begin with my clothes, since DH has declined to participate even though he has dresser drawers of clothing which he has not touched since we moved to Florida over twenty four years ago! Literally, he has not opened the drawers on these dressers for many years. I have graciously agreed to leave his stuff alone, but I secretly hope that he will be motivated by seeing all the stuff I will discard. I personally have over two hundred tshirts alone. My drawers are overflowing with brand new pairs of socks, and underwear still in the cute little Victoria Secret package. That's another rule of the book, when you purchase something be sure to remove tags and packaging and properly fold it into the KonMari rectangle and find a place to vertically store it in a drawer or closet.

6 months later...
Wow, I need to get remotivated. I wrote this post 6 months ago and actually did a purge of clothing, we got rid of a dozen garbage bags of clothes. But I felt very little joy from my clothing. I actually threw out too much and didn't have any of those old grungy tshirts to do lawnwork, or painting in. So, I dug out some of my favorites that I had tossed and put some shirts on my shelf. I also didn't continue to other items beyond clothing. I'll have to start over and read the book again because I do have too much clutter.

If you're feeling to love and want to declutter, another blogger is having a challenge in January to declutter with a nifty calendar plan, check it out at Simply Stacie. The calendar is a printable pdf so you can print it out and hang it up to follow all month.

Today in the paper it announced that the Fitbit app was the most downloaded app on Christmas Day. That means lots of people are going to start tracking their steps and hopefully get healthier. I got a fitbit early this year and have enjoyed the confirmation of my daily steps and it is one of my apps I check almost daily. The cool thing is you can turn your daily steps into money by linking your fitbit with some reward programs and other apps.

If you've got a new fitbit, here are some tips.

Wear it and forget it. If you take it off, you may forget it and miss out on your tracking.

The unit charge lasts several days, it charges on a usb port on PC or wall charger. charge it while sedentary reading or watching tv, or overnight.

Track specific workouts by tapping twice. then you can check the data on your PC to see expanded view of your activity progress.

Log sleep manually if you forget to tap twice before you lay your head down.

Link your fitbit to My Fitness Pal app to automatically add your steps to that app. Go to settings on your MFP app and click add devices, it will take you to website to allow fitbit to access your account.

If unsure of accuracy compare to cardio trainer app, or Moves app to validate movement. Actually if you don't want to buy a fitbit, the moves app will track activity without an additional device, just have your phone with you. Won't work for swimming or yoga, but would work for biking. The Moves app also can be linked to your www.ShopYourWay.com account to earn you points and $2 each week at Kmart or Sears.

Join higi.com to make money from exercising, android app. Link your fitbit and moves app to higi to earn even more. There is usually a new Challenge every month where you can win gift cards by logging in at higi stations (blood pressure machines) in Publix stores and other retail pharmacies.

Join www.Fitstudio.com and link it to your www.ShopYourWay.com account (at Kmart and Sears) to earn 2000 points each week you walk 15 miles. The points expire quickly within the week, but we've used it to get stuff almost every week.

Download app and join Google Fit which you can link to GoodCoins to earn points. Not really sure how many points you need or what they are worth.

Fitbit comes with a small and large wristband. Its good to have spare. If you don't like your color you can buy a fashionable band. They even sell leather and metal ornaments to make it look pretty.

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About Me

Frugal living isn’t about self-denial, at least not absolutely.
It’s about logically and purposely putting our resources toward specific
accomplishments. Occasionally, interspersing my frugal life with luxuries is
tremendously rewarding, as long as those luxuries don’t derail me from the
track. In fact, I recommend it.

On some
level, we should all try to be more conscious of where our money goes, and
better understand the connection between our time and work, and between time
and money. This will help us reach our life goals through a combination of watchful
spending and disciplined saving.